


Blankets and Biscuits

by kathkin



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, space dorks in space
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-23
Updated: 2015-09-23
Packaged: 2018-04-23 02:20:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4859414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kathkin/pseuds/kathkin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>The Doctor had told her to entertain herself and entertain herself she would. She intended to excel at entertaining herself. She would entertain herself so well he’d be impressed at all the fun she’d had.</i> Or, the Doctor and Jamie make a blanket fort and Zoe has a unusual idea of fun.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blankets and Biscuits

“Nearly done, now,” said the Doctor brightly from inside the console. “Just a few more – _ouch_ – twists.”

Zoe looked dubiously at the mound of wiring that trailed from the open panel. He was almost buried in it. “If you say so.”

“Then we shall be right as rain,” the Doctor went on.

Footsteps clumped across the floor. Jamie crouched beside them. “This red box, Doctor?”

“Oh, ah, yes.” The Doctor’s hand emerged from the console. “Ion spanner, if you please.” He wiggled his fingers.

Bewildered, Jamie rooted through the rattling box and pulled out a tool that wasn’t shaped the least bit like a spanner. He plunked it into the Doctor’s palm. The Doctor’s hand squeezed it, feeling its contours, and withdrew. “That’s the one. Two shakes, now.”

Jamie and Zoe exchanged an anxious look. As one, they edged away from the console. They were both still bruised from the ‘turbulence’ that had thrown the power out. The Doctor had attributed it to ‘time winds’, which didn’t sound like a real phenomenon to Zoe, and insisted that he’d have the back-up on line in ‘ _the blink of an eye, you’ll see_.’ That had been almost two hours ago and they were still huddled in the dark. The emergency lighting was blue and came from no discernible source. It lent the control room an ethereal atmosphere and lit Jamie’s face up from beneath like a ghost.

Zoe took a breath to offer her help for the third time, when – _snap_. Something inside the console sparked. The Doctor yelped in pain – but before either of them could say or do anything, the console began to hum, quiet at first, then louder. The lights faded gently on. The power was back.

The Doctor popped out of the console like a rabbit from a burrow. “There, what did I tell you?” He hopped to his feet and tugged a spotted handkerchief from his pocket. “Fixed in a jiffy.”

“A jiffy?” exclaimed Jamie. “You were at it all day.”

“Two hours,” said Zoe.

“Aye, that.”

“Oh, really.” The Doctor mopped his face with the handkerchief. “In the grand scheme of things a few hours is a – a _nano_ -jiffy.”

“How long’s a jiffy?” Jamie asked.

“As long as you want it to be, I think,” said Zoe. “Is it all fixed now, Doctor?”

“More or less.” The Doctor scrunched his handkerchief into a ball and thrust it into his pocket. “Just needs a little while to, ah, recalibrate.”

Zoe and Jamie exchanged what had to be at least their sixth anxious look of the morning. Hesitantly, Zoe said, “how long’s a little while?”

“Oh, a few days,” said the Doctor. “Then we’ll be on our way again.”

“ _Days_?” repeated Zoe, appalled.

“Well, yes.” The Doctor laced his fingers together.

“Can’t you make it – go faster?” said Zoe.

“I’m afraid that’s how long it takes.”

Zoe looked to Jamie for support and found none. He just shrugged unhelpfully. “What are we supposed to do until then?” she said.

“Oh, use your imagination,” said the Doctor. “You have the whole of my TARDIS to explore and a brain the size of a planet. I’m sure you’ll think of something, Zoe my dear.”

And she couldn’t argue with _that_ without disputing that her brain was the size of a planet. She fumed. Just to make matters worse, Jamie said, “aye, we could all use a wee break.”

The Doctor beamed at him. “Precisely! And now I think we could all do with a nice cup of tea.”

*

Well, the Doctor had told her to entertain herself and entertain herself she would. She intended to excel at entertaining herself. She would entertain herself so well he’d be impressed at all the fun she’d had. She’d been meaning to run some tests on the samples she’d been collecting anyway. She set up camp in one of his laboratories and proceeded to more or less live in it for the better part of three days.

She’d been rather enjoying the solitude, but the cultures took hours to develop and by the third afternoon she’d burned through all the books she’d brought. She ventured out in search of tea and some new books to read, and found Jamie.

They almost walked into each other at a junction. She was taking her tea to the library. He was heading towards the control room and carrying the most bizarre collection of things. He had a coil of thin rope over one shoulder and several wooden blankets draped over the other, and he was holding a basket of wooden clips that she couldn’t fathom the purpose of.

He looked startled to see her, as if he’d all but forgotten she was onboard the ship. Which was fair, she supposed, since she’d all but forgotten about him. “Zoe!”

“Jamie,” she said. “Afternoon.”

“If you say so.” He rubbed the back of his head, basket rattling. “What’ve you been doin’, then?”

“Running bacterial and soil analyses,” said Zoe. “And reading a history of Venus. Where are you going with those?”

Jamie looked at his rope and his blankets and his basket as if he’d only just noticed they were there. “Oh, aye.” He was silent, visibly contemplating how to explain what had to be a long and very silly story. Then he beamed. “Come see!” He beckoned her eagerly down the corridor to the control room. Zoe checked her watch – two more hours till the heat-test completed – and followed.

The control room was – almost unrecognisable. It was bedecked with a complex web of blankets, radiating out from the central column like a patchwork tent. Lengths of rope and cable secured the blankets to the wall. She could see the fringed edges of rugs peeping out from within. It was possibly the silliest thing she’d ever seen, and it must have taken him _hours_.

Jamie was grinning, ever so pleased with his handiwork. “It’s a castle!”

Zoe opened her mouth to say that it was actually more of a yurt, and also the Doctor was going to be _furious_ when he saw the mess Jamie had made of his console – but then there was a padding noise beneath the blankets. “Did you find them, Jamie?” A tartan blanket twitched aside. The Doctor’s head popped out, beaming, hair more tousled than usual. “Oh, hallo, Zoe!”

“Aye! Here you go.” Jamie passed the Doctor the basket. The Doctor popped the handle into his mouth and disappeared back into the fort.

“Oo come in!” he mumbled around the basket. “Come and shee!”

Jamie flashed her a smile. He dumped his blankets and rope on the floor and crawled after the Doctor. Zoe rolled her eyes, dropped into a crouch, and followed, trying very hard to look as if she was just humouring them. It wasn’t as if she _wanted_ to see inside. She had much better things to be doing. Really.

Inside it was hushed and woolly. Light filtered through the weave of the blankets. There was enough room to sit up comfortably – Jamie had to duck his head slightly – and so she sat cross-legged on a fluffy cushion. “Is _this_ what you’ve been doing this whole time?” Goodness, this wasn’t even all of it. There were two blanket-flaps leading further in.

“Och, no. We only started this yesterday.” Jamie offered her a plate. “Biscuit?”

“Why?” The Doctor sorted through the basket. “What’ve you been doing?”

“Bacterial and soil analyses,” said Zoe around a mouthful of jammy biscuit. She swallowed and took another one.

“Oh, very good.” The Doctor gestured around himself with a wooden clip. “It has three rooms, you know!”

“I’m impressed,” said Zoe, semi-serious.

“Ah-ha!” The Doctor held aloft a red-painted clip. “This one’s my favourite.”

“C’mon.” Jamie rolled onto his hands and knees. “I’ll show you around.”

Zoe made a show of rolling her eyes, jammed her biscuit into her mouth, and followed. Soil analyses could wait. It was a very comfortable blanket fort but she’d already noticed two structural weaknesses that needed correcting, _and_ it really ought to have at least one reading lamp. She’d probably have her hands full all afternoon.


End file.
